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Safe Routes to School shows San Rafael corridors among county priorities; task force to target walk audits and concept plans
Summary
Safer Schools task force presented corridor-based overlay mapping and a point‑scoring method that ranked Coleman, Laurel Dell, Davidson and Bahia Vista among San Rafael’s highest priorities; staff said walk audits and concept plans will follow and be coordinated with Public Works and existing grant funding.
Wendy Callens, task force coordinator for the Safer Schools program, told the Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee that the county’s Safe Routes to School program has moved from spot fixes to corridor planning and now uses Parametrix overlay maps to rank safety issues by objective criteria. “We start with the route maps… then we overlay where the students are located,” Callens said, describing maps showing concentrations of students and known crash locations.
Callens said the task force reduced roughly 500 identified issues to about 250 and scored 40 schools countywide; San Rafael recorded 33 issues across five schools with scores ranging from 13 to 30. “You have Coleman as number 2 on top prioritization,” she said, noting Laurel Dell, Davidson and Bahia Vista also ranked highly. David Parisi, Parametrix project manager, said the scoring weights connectivity, equity (Title I status), crash history and infrastructure needs to produce tiered priorities that guide walk audits and concept planning.
Committee members pressed presenters on how the criteria balance pedestrian and bicycle needs. Parisi and Callens said San Rafael shows high walk rates—especially at neighborhood and Title I schools—and that bicycle facilities remain part of corridor planning. “That does not mean… we won't be looking at bicycle facilities as well,” Parisi said, naming Davidson and 5th Street as places where walking and biking overlap.
Public commenters highlighted specific problem locations during the meeting’s public-comment period, pointing to sight‑line and parking congestion at Octavia and Woodland and to Nova Albion and Lindaro/Jordan as corridors they believe deserve higher priority. Callens and Parisi confirmed those streets are on longer lists and said the full spreadsheet of identified issues will be shared with committee members for follow-up.
Next steps: staff and the task force will coordinate with the city’s Public Works department to select top corridors for walk audits, develop concept plans, and align projects with existing grants (Highway Safety Program, TAM Safe Pathway, ATP). The task force emphasized the work as programmatic and exploratory—identifying problems and producing concept plans rather than approving final designs.
